Can I remove this truss brace?

[Jonathan Jung]

I'd really like to remove these lateral braces to help run duct and wiring. Looking online at temporary truss bracing, it seems that these can go. What further makes me think so is that only about half the nails are fully inserted, some have just enough room like the installers were thinking to pull them out after sheathing.

Thoughts?

IMG_0685.jpg

https://www.ihsa.ca/PDFs/Products/Id/W211.pdf
http://www.hillscreektruss.com/index.php/truss-bracing

According to sites like these, it seems that lateral bracing is temporary to keep truss spacing before sheathing.

[Bill Dufour]

That may be a rat run that should not be removed. How old is the roof deck? If it was shear nailed to modern code the rat run is not really needed.
Be careful, I see you live in a very high seismic area and probably winds as well.
Bill D.

[stephen thomas]

Let's put it this way - if that was installed to meet an intended spec, it is not doing so.
There's nothing usefully structural about those partially nailed pieces, at that height, with no diagonal bracing.

Whether you should have bracing "elsewhere" or whether adequate diagonal bracing was installed at all points, is a separate question*.

Not in anyway an engineer - but i ran crews and framed miles of roof framing in all sorts of commercial and residential developments.

Diagonal bracing: Up here in NY state most counties we can still build pretty much the way we feel like, for good or bad. Especially in Ag zoned areas.
A couple weeks ago, another member of our ad-hoc machinist/woodworker group approached me at a meeting about his new shop. As i questioned him, he had run diagonal bracing as necessary in most of the logical places.
But his eyes literally grew wide as he described shoving center of the 32' end wall and being able to displace it several inches as the building then commenced to throb back and forth at that point. The walls and roof were sheathed.
There were some central "rat runs" as another poster described them. Nonetheless, he had not diagonally braced the bottom chords of the truss, to carry a load at the center of the run, out to the shear walls. Some long 2 x 4's fixed the problem. A plywood ceiling, or subfloor on top of the truss lower chord would also work.

[David Gutierrez]

agree with Stephen above that 2x is not required. often seen that used as temp bracing to maintain spacing while under construction.

[Edward Weber]

I would feel perfectly comfortable removing it, it's not offering any structural aide in any way shape of form.
Remove it and do your work, if you're concerned, then replace it in a manner so that it could add some benefit to the structure.

[Tom M King]

There is no reason to replace it. It's just there to hold the spacing until the roof sheathing can go on. It's served its purpose and they just left it because it was cheaper to leave it than take it back out.

[Cameron Wood]

What Tom said.

[Dave Zellers]

Totally agree with Tom. There is also a 2x4 on the 2nd rafter from the right that looks like a leftover as well as whatever that yellow clamp is holding up.

[Michael Zerance]

I can't speak to the construction methods in your area but I'm in a high wind area and those braces are required. They are a permanent component of the roof system and are not temporary or leftovers. The truss system is designed to withstand a specific minimum wind load rating with the braces installed. The braces are detailed on the engineered drawings and required to pass inspection.

Whether that applies to your area or not, I don't know. You would have to look at the engineered truss drawings to know for sure.

If it were my shop, I'd remove them to run the duct and wire, then reinstall them when I was done. But, I would reinstall them at mid-span of the web because they look like they are currently installed too high.

[Jim Becker]

Michael, wind ties are indeed important, but I've not seen them in that particular position nor installed so haphazardly.

[Bill Howatt]

...
Whether that applies to your area or not, I don't know. You would have to look at the engineered truss drawings to know for sure.
...

My trusses came with the engineering specs and do's and don't warnings data, IIRC. Can you get it for yours?

[Edward Weber]

While I agree there is a often a requirement for lateral wind bracing. What I see in the photo is a temp alignment strip.
If it were actual "to spec" wind bracing, there would most likely be two of them spaced evenly from the top to bottom of the sipport.
This looks to be a haphazard brace, nailed 1' down on a 5' foot support.

Also, a "brace" that is attached perfectly horizontally, as the picture shows, does absolutly nothing to withstand later force. A brace/s needs to be installed at an angle to withstand lateral force, otherwise it's just a pivot point.

[Michael Zerance]

I do agree with Edward and Jim that the braces in the picture posted by OP appear to have been installed haphazardly and don't appear to be supporting much.

However, it is common, at least in Florida, to have horizontal bracing at the mid-point of the webs. The drawing below if for 150 mph wind load.

Screenshot 2024-08-11 170234.jpg

[Bill Dufour]

My brother had a four car garage built in Oregon. He was in the country so not real well inspected. He had to have a plywood deck shear nailed in the middle of the ceiling. It had about six feet open on all four sides. Not designed for storage just to prevent racking. He also had two short walls middle of the longest walls. They stuck out about two feet into the main garage space. I believe they were plywood shear faced on both sides. This was to prevent wind from bowing in the walls. There were tall mountains up the valley and high winds could blow down the valley perpendicular to that long wall.
BilL D

[Bill Howatt]

Seems to me, rather than worry about removal, is to do what was already suggested. Do the work and then put them back up, preferably at mid-point, and have the best of both worlds.